Thousands switch on as Senegalese duo rap the news

The show, which began in 2013, features Senegalese rappers Xuman and Keyti presenting the news in rhythm and rhyme, as well as Jamdong for the part of the show in Wolof.

DAKAR - If there is an afterlife for news anchors, Walter Cronkite may well be reaching for his ear muffs and a calming celestial gin and tonic.

For five years after the celebrated US broadcaster's death, two Senegalese hip-hop artists are taking current affairs in a brash new direction - by rapping the news.

Dakar-based musicians Xuman and Keyti deliver the week's top domestic and global stories in verse on "Journal Tele Rappe" - JTR to the cool kids - to a television and YouTube audience of thousands.

"It's the news like any other news, except that it's rapping, there is humour in it. We don't just give the news - we cover positions which are highly subjective, and the public consensus too," says Keyti, a 41-year-old whose real name is Cheikh Sene.

Xuman, a slender, dreadlocked 40-something known in more formal circles as Makhtar Fall, came up with the idea several years ago, frustrated at having to cede the mic to newsreaders during TV and radio broadcasts.

"I wondered if it wouldn't be a bad thing to be able to mix rap, news and education or entertainment," he says.

The pair have years of considerable chart success between them and have been known for social and political activism spanning more than a decade.

Xuman raps in French, the official language of Senegal, while Keyti delivers his lines in Wolof, the local tongue.

They use a Senegalese producer known as No-Face Undacova for the music, with a local company called Level Studio taking care of design and production.

The show, in its second six-month season, goes out on Friday nights on the privately-owned Senegalese station 2STV and is then posted on the duo's YouTube channel, which has almost 12,500 subscribers.

The video links also go up on JTR's Twitter and Facebook accounts, which have several thousand followers between them.

The pair cover everything from local politics to foreign wars, and their unconventional twist on the week's events is gaining in popularity.

A recent bulletin featuring a guest rapper called Hyde reporting from the scene on the escalating conflict in Gaza attracted 12,800 views within four days of going online.

"Salam, shalom, live from Gaza... The Jewish state has little to say on the errors ascribed to it... Netanyahu speaks to the need to restore calm. So (Israel) arms itself and the world must be silent," Hyde told his audience, sporting a helmet and flak jacket among the ruins of a destroyed house.